India has shown the world how to democratize technology and give it a "human touch" by adopting indigenous government initiatives online, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a virtual message at the 25th Bengaluru Tech Summit-2022 on Wednesday.
“In India, technology is a force of equality and empowerment,” he stated, underlining how broadband connections and smartphone users in the country have increased multifold, especially in rural areas.
As an example of the widespread adoption of tech in rural areas, Modi pointed to the world's largest health insurance scheme, known as Ayushmann Bharat, which provides a safety net for nearly 200 million families or about 600 million people and is run based on a tech platform.
Similarly, India’s drive for vaccination against COVID-19 is run with the help of the tech platform COWIN.
Noting that India has jumped from 81st to 40th since 2015 in the global innovation index, the prime minister said that, “The number of unicorn startups have doubled since 2021 and there are hundreds of companies that have set up their research and development centers in India.” A unicorn startup is a new firm valued at more than $1 billion.
Modi also said that India is no longer known for red-tapism, but rather for rolling out the red carpet for investors.
Global leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, UAE Minister for Artificial Intelligence Omar Sultan Al Olama and many tech leaders attended the virtual session.